Gagandeep Kang: helping to shape a healthier India

Abstract

Having worked in enteric disease research for the past three decades, Gagandeep Kang has a broad perspective on many of the health challenges confronting her native India. Kang, who is Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, southern India, also directs CMC's Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory. There, rotavirus vaccine work—which has been a central part of her career—remains a priority. “We are currently collaborating with a network of 25 hospitals across India to enable us to better understand how much disease is alleviated and why the key prevention tool of rotavirus vaccines does not generally work as well as they do in high-income countries”, she says. Reimagining India's health system: a Lancet Citizens’ CommissionThe COVID-19 pandemic and response are having profound impacts on India's people, leading to myriad health-care challenges, a looming economic recession, and humanitarian crises.1 The long-standing need for universal health coverage (UHC) in India has been brought into sharp focus by the pandemic. The mission of the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on reimagining India's health system is to lay out the path to achieving UHC in India in the coming decade. Full-Text PDF